IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/col/000107/017019.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants and Effects of Fiscal Counter-Cyclicality

Author

Listed:
  • Davide Furceri
  • João Tovar Jalles

Abstract

This paper provides a novel dataset of time-varying measures of fiscal counter-cyclicality for an unbalanced panel of advanced and emerging market economies from 1980 to 2014. The use of time-varying measures of fiscal counter-cyclicality overcomes the major limitation of existing studies assessing the determinants and the effects of fiscal countercyclicality that rely on cross-country regressions and, therefore, are not able to account for country-specific as well as global factors. The key findings of the paper are as follows: (i) fiscal counter-cyclicality has increased over time for many economies over the last two decades; (ii) fiscal counter-cyclicality is positively associated with financial deepening, the level of economic development, trade openness, government size as well as with political factors; (iii) fiscal counter-cyclicality significantly reduces output volatility. Our results are robust to various specifications and endogeneity checks. ****** Este documento ofrece un novedoso conjunto de datos con medidas de la contraciclicidad de la política fiscal que son variantes en el tiempo, para un panel desbalanceado de economías avanzadas y emergentes desde 1980 hasta 2014. El uso de medidas fiscales contracíclicas que cambian en el tiempo, supera la principal limitación de los estudios existentes sobre la materia, que usualmente evalúan los determinantes y los efectos de la contraciclicidad fiscal basados en regresiones a través de países y, por lo tanto, no dan cuenta de los efectos específicos por país ni de los efectos globales. Los hallazgos más importantes del trabajo son los siguientes: (i) la contraciclicidad fiscal ha aumentado durante las últimas dos décadas en muchas economías; (ii) la contraciclicidad fiscal está asociada positivamente con la profundización financiera, el nivel de desarrollo económico, la apertura comercial, el tamano del gobierno, así como con factores políticos; y (iii) la contraciclicidad fiscal reduce significativamente la volatilidad del producto. Nuestros resultados son robustos a varias especificaciones y verificaciones de endogeneidad.

Suggested Citation

  • Davide Furceri & João Tovar Jalles, 2018. "Determinants and Effects of Fiscal Counter-Cyclicality," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 36(85), pages 137-151, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000107:017019
    DOI: 10.32468/espe.8508
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.32468/espe.8508
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.32468/espe.8508?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frankel, Jeffrey A. & Vegh, Carlos A. & Vuletin, Guillermo, 2013. "On graduation from fiscal procyclicality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 32-47.
    2. António Afonso & João Tovar Jalles, 2013. "The cyclicality of education, health, and social security government spending," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(7), pages 669-672, May.
    3. Philippe Aghion & Philippe Askenazy & Nicolas Berman & Gilbert Cette & Laurent Eymard, 2012. "Credit Constraints And The Cyclicality Of R&D Investment: Evidence From France," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(5), pages 1001-1024, October.
    4. Xavier Debrun & Jean Pisani-Ferry & André Sapir, 2008. "Government size and output volatility- should we forsake automatic stabilisation?," Working Papers 47, Bruegel.
    5. Ramey, Garey & Ramey, Valerie A, 1995. "Cross-Country Evidence on the Link between Volatility and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1138-1151, December.
    6. Talvi, Ernesto & Vegh, Carlos A., 2005. "Tax base variability and procyclical fiscal policy in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 156-190, October.
    7. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Why Do More Open Economies Have Bigger Governments?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 997-1032, October.
    8. Fatas, Antonio & Mihov, Ilian, 2001. "Government size and automatic stabilizers: international and intranational evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 3-28, October.
    9. Philippe Aghion & Ioana Marinescu, 2008. "Cyclical Budgetary Policy and Economic Growth: What Do We Learn from OECD Panel Data?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2007, Volume 22, pages 251-278, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Schlicht, Ekkehart, 2003. "Estimating Time-Varying Coefficients With the VC Program," Discussion Papers in Economics 34, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    11. Afonso, António & Furceri, Davide, 2010. "Government size, composition, volatility and economic growth," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 517-532, December.
    12. Antonio Fatás & Ilian Mihov, 2003. "The Case for Restricting Fiscal Policy Discretion," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1419-1447.
    13. Aghion, P. & Askenazy, P. & Berman, N. & Cette, G. & Eymard, L., 2008. "Credit Constraints and the Cyclicality of R&D Investment: Evidence from France," Working papers 198, Banque de France.
    14. Blanchard, Olivier J, 1985. "Debt, Deficits, and Finite Horizons," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(2), pages 223-247, April.
    15. Olivier J. Blanchard & Lawrence H. Summers, 1984. "Perspectives on High World Real Interest Rates," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 15(2), pages 273-334.
    16. Furceri, Davide & Karras, Georgios, 2007. "Country size and business cycle volatility: Scale really matters," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 424-434, December.
    17. Furceri, Davide, 2010. "Stabilization effects of social spending: Empirical evidence from a panel of OECD countries," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 34-48, March.
    18. Mr. Michael Kumhof & Mr. Douglas Laxton, 2009. "Simple, Implementable Fiscal Policy Rules," IMF Working Papers 2009/076, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Furceri Davide & Jalles João Tovar, 2019. "Fiscal counter-cyclicality and productive investment: evidence from advanced economies," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-15, January.
    2. António Afonso & Francisco Tiago Carvalho, 2021. "Euro area time-varying cyclicality of fiscal policy," Working Papers REM 2021/0202, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    3. Afonso, António & Carvalho, Francisco Tiago, 2022. "Time-varying cyclicality of fiscal policy: The case of the Euro area," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jalles, João Tovar, 2020. "The volatility impact of social expenditure’s cyclicality in advanced economies," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 26-40.
    2. Jalles, João Tovar, 2021. "Dynamics of government spending cyclicality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 411-427.
    3. João T. Jalles, 2020. "Explaining Africa's public consumption procyclicality: Revisiting old evidence," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 297-323, August.
    4. Jean-Louis Combes & Mary-Françoise Renard & Sampawende Jules Tapsoba, 2015. "Provincial Public Expenditure in China: A Tale of Profligacy," Working Papers halshs-01217332, HAL.
    5. Jalles, João Tovar, 2020. "Social expenditure cyclicality: New time-varying evidence in developing economies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    6. João Tovar Jalles, 2019. "On the Cyclicality of Social Expenditure: New Time-Varying evidence from Developing Economies," Working Papers REM 2019/82, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    7. Sangyup Choi & Davide Furceri & João Tovar Jalles, 2022. "Heterogeneous gains from countercyclical fiscal policy: new evidence from international industry-level data [Optimal investment with costly reversibility]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 773-804.
    8. António Afonso & Francisco Tiago Carvalho, 2021. "Euro area time-varying cyclicality of fiscal policy," Working Papers REM 2021/0202, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    9. Sangyup Choi & Davide Furceri & Joao Tovar Jalles, 2017. "Fiscal Stabilization and Growth: Evidence from Industry-level Data for Advanced and Developing Economies," Working papers 2017rwp-110, Yonsei University, Yonsei Economics Research Institute.
    10. Guerguil, Martine & Mandon, Pierre & Tapsoba, René, 2017. "Flexible fiscal rules and countercyclical fiscal policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 189-220.
    11. Afonso, António & Carvalho, Francisco Tiago, 2022. "Time-varying cyclicality of fiscal policy: The case of the Euro area," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    12. Philippe Aghion & David Hemous & Enisse Kharroubi, 2009. "Credit Constraints, Cyclical Fiscal Policy and Industry Growth," NBER Working Papers 15119, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Barbaros Güneri & A. Yasemin Yalta, 2021. "Does economic complexity reduce output volatility in developing countries?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 411-431, July.
    14. Markus Eller & Jarko Fidrmuc & Zuzana Fungáčová, 2016. "Fiscal Policy and Regional Output Volatility: Evidence from Russia," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(11), pages 1849-1862, November.
    15. Harald Badinger, 2008. "Cyclical Fiscal Policy, Output Volatility, and Economic Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 2268, CESifo.
    16. repec:zbw:bofitp:2013_013 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Jalles, João Tovar, 2018. "Fiscal rules and fiscal counter-cyclicality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 159-162.
    18. Markus Eller & Jarko Fidrmuc & Zuzana Fungáčová, 2016. "Fiscal Policy and Regional Output Volatility: Evidence from Russia," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(11), pages 1849-1862, November.
    19. Irene Brunetti & Davide fiaschi & Lisa Gianmoena, 2013. "An Index of Growth Rate Volatility: Methodology and an Application to European Regions," Discussion Papers 2013/169, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    20. Staehr, Karsten, 2008. "Fiscal policies and business cycles in an enlarged euro area," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 46-69, March.
    21. Brüeckner,Markus & Carneiro,Francisco Galrao, 2015. "The effects of volatility, fiscal policy cyclicality and financial development on growth : evidence for the Eastern Caribbean," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7507, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fiscal policy; fiscal stabilization; output volatility; time-varying coefficients; weighted least squares; política fiscal; estabilización fiscal; volatilidad del producto; coeficientes cambiantes en el tiempo; mínimos cuadrados ponderados;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:col:000107:017019. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Espe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/brcgvco.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.